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The Old Catholic Confederation and the Episcopal Church

When Bishop Rodney Michel was Acting Bishop and Assisting Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania he mentored Father de Paulo for three years and on February 16, 2013 formally received him as an Old-Catholic priest functioning within the Episcopal Church. As Episcopal Visitor to the U.S. Vicariate for Old-Catholics, Bishop Rodney Michel appointed Father de Paulo as Vicar General for Old-Catholics in the United States. Upon his reception as an Old-Catholic priest and appointment as Vicar General for Old-Catholics, Father de Paulo was licensed as a priest Elevated to the rank of Canon of the Anglican Cathedral of St. Bartholomew in Wusasa, Nigeria.

On the Feast of the Holy Cross, September 14, 2013, The Rev. Canon Dr. Craig J. N. de Paulo was consecrated to the Holy Episcopate by Archbishop Peter Paul Brennan, assisted by Bishop Dr. William Manseau and Bishop Rodney R. Michel, Assisting Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania of the Episcopal Church in the United States, at the Episcopal Church of St. John in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

Archbishop de Paulo's Episcopal consecration was, in fact, an historic event since it was the first time an active bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States had participated as Co-Consecrator of an Old-Catholic bishop in more than one hundred years. As such, Archbishop de Paulo is the only Old-Catholic bishop in the United States to hold Historic Succession in the Episcopal Church.

Further, through his Co-Consecrator, Bishop Rodney R. Michel (#928), Assisting Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, Archbishop de Paulo also holds the same Historic Succession of the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands of the Union of Utrecht because Bishop Michel's Principal Consecrator was Bishop Edmund Browning (#630), then Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States. Bishop Browning’s Principal Co-Consecrator was Bishop Francis Carl Rowinski, who was then Prime Bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church (which, at the time, had full Communion with the Episcopal Church as a Member Church of the Union of Utrecht.) Bishop Rowinski's lineage comes directly from Bishop Franciszek Hodur, the founder and Prime Bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church, who was consecrated a Bishop by Archbishop Gerardus Gul, then Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht, on September 29, 1907, assisted by Bishop Jan Van Thiel of Haarlem and Bishop Peter Spitz of Deventer.

Dr. de Paulo is also the only Old-Catholic bishop in the United States to hold a Diplomatic appointment in the Anglican Communion in his capacity as Episcopal Commissary of the Church of the Province of West Africa to the Episcopal Church in the United States.